On April 12, 2012, a postman carrying a package containing two DVDs of child pornography—one titled Curious Boys—walked up to a modest home in Export, Pennsylvania, some 30 minutes east of Pittsburgh, and rang the bell. A forty-something man emerged, signed for the offered package, and retreated back inside. The man was Todd Markley, a former church youth worker who hadn't done much to mask his purchase; indeed, Markley had paid $54.95 for the videos with a personal check and signed his own name, then filled out the order form with preprinted address stickers listing his correct home address. He also hadn't been discriminating about how he obtained his videos. Rather than seeking out vetted sources, Markley had simply responded to an ad from a company called "CVI" that had arrived in the mail.

The ad had been produced by one Brian Bone, which might sound like some sort of pseudonym but which was in fact the name of a US Postal Inspector running an undercover sting operation. Bone had helped bring down an LA distributor of child pornography back in 2006 and, as part of that investigation, had uncovered the company's sales database. On it were a host of names, including Todd Markley's—a repeat customer who had allegedly ordered 21 child pornography videos between 2003-2006. After shutting down the LA company, Bone in 2011 finally turned his attention to reeling in those customers in the company database, provided they still showed interest in obtaining such material. Markley proved an easy fish to hook, requesting a catalog from CVI and soon ordering videos right to his home.

Moments after the "postman" had delivered the package containing those videos—in reality, the whole operation was a pre-planned "controlled delivery"—agents from both the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the Pittsburgh High Tech Crimes Task Force converged on the home. They swarmed in with a search warrant and went looking in particular for any electronic evidence in the home. Markley didn't offer much resistance, even voluntarily giving investigators the combination to a home safe. Inside the safe, agents found something curious: a hand-written notecard headed "Delete one month of e-mails." The flip side of the card had a section labeled "Saturday Mornings" that included steps like "Delete browsing history and files."

If this was meant as a security protocol to guard against moments like this one, it failed spectacularly; if it had only been meant to make sure that visitors never saw anything unusual on his computer, it seems to have worked well enough. Even Markley's own mother had no idea what her son had allegedly been up to.

Agents also found several thumb drives in the safe. Following an increasingly common protocol, the team did a preliminary review of the drives right there in the house, not waiting for a forensics lab to do a thorough and time-consuming report. Child pornography was immediately apparent on two of the drives, according to investigators, who say that Markley quickly admitted to his ownership of the material. Also in the safe: multiple versions of a suicide note and brochures for NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Love Association.

After the search, investigators carted away their finds, but they left Markley untouched. Though he was under investigation, though he had accepted delivery of two movies he believed to contain child pornography, and though similar material had been found in his home, he was not under arrest. Yet.

The handwritten notecard found in Markley's safe

Court filing, USA v. Todd Markley

An eye for an eye

One week after his computers had been seized, Markley was at Walmart buying a new machine. He relied on e-mail to keep in touch with people—even those coming after him, such as US Postal Inspector Karen Yoakum, who had been on the warrant team and had spoken with Markley at his home. He wanted to know what was going to happen to him. And as he waited, his mental state deteriorated.

Not that Markley had been in great shape to begin with. As his mother Sandra would later testify, her son's suffering started early in life, as he didn't seem to be progressing through normal stages of development. It wasn't until he was a freshman at Virginia Tech that the cause became clear: a tumor of the pituitary gland, which prevented full sexual development. It was left untreated for so long it largely destroyed the organ before being removed. The list of Markley's eventual health problems was dazzling: severe migraines, chronic fatigue, and fibromyalgia. A meningioma required brain surgery in 2011. Severe back pain flared up. Neuropathy sent pain through Markley's face so sizzling that he eventually underwent a procedure in Detroit to install a motor cortex stimulator by "removing part of his skull, placing these leads with electrodes on the top lining of his brain, then bringing those leads back out through his skull and—through his skin, and they come out approximately behind his ear and go down." The results of all this suffering had been, his mother said, an anxiety disorder, panic attacks, and a daily need for painkillers like Oxycontin and Vicodin. Markley was also on disability at the time of the raid.

The investigation upped Markley's anxiety throughout April and May; by the end of the month, he didn't believe he could handle the pain and stress any more. According to accounts from investigators and from Markley's mother, Markley made his way to his new computer at some point after midnight on the morning of May 31 and wrote at least two e-mails. One went to his mom, who lived only a few minutes away, and it read: "If I die before dawn and my soul has moved on, there is no loss, only gain, for I will be living free, free from my myriad of pain. Grace and hope God has granted me, living in his glory for eternity. I will soar with the angels. I will sit at God's feet. I will worship Christ Jesus. My joy is complete. Todd."

But only a few minutes earlier, Markley allegedly sent a far less joyful e-mail to Postal Inspector Karen Yoakum—one with the subject line "an eye for an eye." Its opening lines set the tone: "You are a murderer. You killed me, bitch."

In the message, Markley said that he had not looked at the images on the flash drive for "4 or 5 years" and that he had never had "any inappropriate contact with a minor." (An FBI agent later testified that forensic tools showed that some of the images on the drives had been accessed only days before the raid.) He talked about those parents who told him that he was "the best Youth Ministry Director our church has ever had" and how he had counseled "teens who were so stoned, they didn't even know what day it was." He had helped all of those teens, Markley said.

Well, all except one:

An eye for an eye, bitch. Remember the one youth that didn't break his drug habit. He is deep into organized crime now? But he still trusts me, and I trust him. There's a $3,000 bounty on your bitch-ass head. They won't get you right away. They will wait until the police stop watching you, then, boom, bitch, you're dead. I've instructed them to make your death as painful, drawn out and humiliating as possible. You will probably be raped by at least ten guys before they kill you. They will beat the shit out of you, and then they will cut you just enough that you will bleed out slowly. Get your affairs in order, bitch. You fucked up, and soon, you'll be paying for it with your life. No one can protect you or save you now. And until you're dead I will petition God daily to send you to the deepest, damnedest depths of hell, where you will burn with the rest of the damned for eternity. You stupid bitch. You've killed both of us, but your death will be much more painful than mine.

Markley then downed handfuls of pills. He soon passed out.

A sad and disturbing case

But Markley did not die. When his mother awoke in the early morning, unable to sleep longer, she checked her e-mail and found his note. She called Markley's sister and the associate pastor at their church; the three met in the predawn darkness outside Markley's home.

"I had a key, went up, found him in his bed, found—there were three empty pill bottles," his mother later recounted. "I could not arouse him. I shook him. He was still breathing, but it was not normal breathing. He was gasping. I called 911, and the 911 operator kept me on the line, told me how to secure his airway, you know, lower the bed, hold his head back, his chin up until the medics arrived."

Markley was taken to a local hospital, stabilized, and eventually committed to the mental health ward.

His e-mail to Yoakum had, predictably, made his whole situation far worse. The FBI got involved because of the murder/rape threat, and the Bureau obtained a search warrant for Markley's Comcast e-mail account. Less than 24 hours after Yoakum received the threat, the government filed a criminal complaint against Markley for possession of child pornography and for "threatening to murder, intimidate, interfere, or retaliate against a federal official."

At a court hearing in early June, FBI special agent Gregg Frankhouser noted just how horrific that e-mailed threat had been. "My discussions with other law enforcement personnel, some involved in law enforcement over 15 and 20 years, have said they have never read an e-mail as violent as that," he said. The FBI, the Pittsburgh High Tech Crimes Task Force, and the US Postal Inspection Service are currently investigating the threat to see if the person "deep into organized crime" even exists, was contacted, and was paid the $3,000 bounty.

Without that e-mail, and given his clean criminal record, Markley might have spent his time awaiting trial under his parents' supervision, with limited Internet access and electronic monitoring. But when it came time to rule on such a release, the judge returned to the e-mail. "You know, we have an e-mail that's not a one-line idle threat," he said. "It's filled with very specific threats that are very violent and very graphic, and I'm not overlooking the child pornography charge, which is serious in and of itself, but frankly, it's the threat that concerns me more."

The case has all the technical elements of so many modern investigations—search warrants for e-mail, the on-site triage of electronic evidence, a defendant's use of thumb drives, half-hearted attempts to keep a computer "clean," and the presence of high-tech investigative task forces. But cases built on electronic evidence still have humans behind them and, on a human level, this one is more depressing than most. As the judge put it at the end of Markley's detention hearing, "Well, this a very sad and disturbing case on a number of levels."

This article is freaking depressing on so very many levels I can't enumerate them all.

dlux wrote:

Quote:

The man was Todd Markley, a former church youth worker...

Let's just let that sit there on its own.

Why? This type of person self-selects for positions that bring them in contact with children. Youth-worker, councilor, teacher, etc... Apologies if I am making unfounded assumptions about the meaning of your post, but trying to make some sort of association between the fact he was a church-goer and his... illness... is dumb.

No, I'll not go there. That's a cheap shot that belies a personal agenda. Sorry to call it that.

At first I was humored about the total lack of understanding, of a switch that triggers the voice in our heads to question our actions, especially when they're understandably out of the norm. But the more I read on, the more I felt kinda sorry for the guy. His brain, this capacity rationalize and comprehend, is severely broken. I kinda imagine a computer array that someone has gone and sprayed salt water in random places. It's broken, shorted, and therefore unpredictable. The underlying physical damage is out of his control.

Not condoning any of his actions, it's just sad reading about how badly brain injuries can warp a person. I hope they get him out of society, not necessarily thrown in prison, but someplace where he can't hurt others. It's not totally his fault, his brain is broken.

You'd think it would be incredibly obvious but I suppose in his state he certainly couldn't see that. Depressing situation indeed. I guess in his state he also didn't understand what sort of info they can gather off your HDD's etc like that.

I guess I could really see why he ended up like this. Still sad though.

Meh. Why highlight this case, it just seems to be a bit pointless, with the barest of digital enforcement patina. Is there some angle here that I don't see that elevates this piece?

Thought it was interesting to see how a single e-mail can potentially get you in more trouble even than something like possessing child pornography, and how computers can make -both- things so accessible--just walk down the hall, don't even need a stamp. Your whole life can change now just without even forcing you to overcome roadblocks, such as going in search of illicit material, or digging up agent addresses and mailing letters, etc. This case is kind of a textbook example of just how easy it can be--and just how bad the results can get.

Am I just internet jaded, or does his threatening e-mail just seem pretty par for the course for all fucked up things on the internet?

Sure, people on less-than-sterling-reputation image boards probably have this kind of thing directed at them all the time; but I think the difference 1.) Knowing the person threatening is not an internet tough-guy or kidding or doing it for the lulz and 2.) the person threatening you knows exactly who you are, and not just some nickname or internet handle

My state in past years has severely cut mental health treatment options.

When I read about cases like this, I'm boggled as to why. People with mental health issues are particularly vulnerable as they are often unable to get jobs to fund care on their own, if they are even cognizant that they need care.

If we're not willing to execute our mentally unstable, we should but putting more resources to manage them, not less.

Meh. Why highlight this case, it just seems to be a bit pointless, with the barest of digital enforcement patina. Is there some angle here that I don't see that elevates this piece?

Thought it was interesting to see how a single e-mail can potentially get you in more trouble even than something like possessing child pornography, and how computers can make -both- things so accessible--just walk down the hall, don't even need a stamp. Your whole life can change now just without even forcing you to overcome roadblocks, such as going in search of illicit material, or digging up agent addresses and mailing letters, etc. This case is kind of a textbook example of just how easy it can be--and just how bad the results can get.

But the problem here is not so much about email, is it? This is a story about someone whose life has been completely fucked up from the very start and who got himself in bad trouble as a result. The email threat part is very minor. I am not saying that the story is not, in itself, interesting, it is well-written, but I am not sure that the place for such a story is on Ars.

Meh. Why highlight this case, it just seems to be a bit pointless, with the barest of digital enforcement patina. Is there some angle here that I don't see that elevates this piece?

Thought it was interesting to see how a single e-mail can potentially get you in more trouble even than something like possessing child pornography, and how computers can make -both- things so accessible--just walk down the hall, don't even need a stamp. Your whole life can change now just without even forcing you to overcome roadblocks, such as going in search of illicit material, or digging up agent addresses and mailing letters, etc. This case is kind of a textbook example of just how easy it can be--and just how bad the results can get.

A pattern of purchasing child pornography, a prepared suicide note in a safe... this wasn't something done in the spur of the moment.

This guy had severe mental issues, and while I won't blame his sickness with regard to his sexual feelings for children on it, I can easily see how this degraded, and not all at his own fault. I doubt the 'rapist' exists.

I suppose it might have been better for him if they'd let him die. Now he'll probably just get murdered in prison.

And no, I don't blame the postal inspectors one bit. It's not like they're randomly selecting mentally ill people and trying to entice them into buying child pornography; this guy bought before, he bought again, and he had more where that came from.

The head-shaking part is that they didn't arrest him after the raid. I guess we can all drop "possession of child pornography" off the list of things that will put you in handcuffs.

They probably didn't think he was a flight or violence risk, and they took all the evidence. The courts are overworked and the prisons are crowded, there's a strong preference in some places not make them more so if it's possible.

But the more I read on, the more I felt kinda sorry for the guy. His brain, this capacity rationalize and comprehend, is severely broken.

Bullsh**t. His email is clear, concise, and, frankly, better composed that most I receive in the course of a normal business day. He knows what he's doing, and he knows it is wrong.

The head-shaking part is that they didn't arrest him after the raid. I guess we can all drop "possession of child pornography" off the list of things that will put you in handcuffs.

Ability to compose an email has nothing to do with whether his brain is broken or not. Plenty of sociopaths are very intelligent on some levels, but have trouble understanding why what they are doing is wrong, or controlling their actions. This guy seems like that. The part of his brain that would tell him not to send a letter like that or view CP is simply broken. He might even know it is broken, but there isn't much he can do about it. He belongs in an institution, clearly. It might not do him any good (it sounds like the damage may be irreparable), but he obviously cannot stay within society, not after this, and prison likely would make him even worse.

But the more I read on, the more I felt kinda sorry for the guy. His brain, this capacity rationalize and comprehend, is severely broken.

Bullsh**t. His email is clear, concise, and, frankly, better composed that most I receive in the course of a normal business day. He knows what he's doing, and he knows it is wrong.

The head-shaking part is that they didn't arrest him after the raid. I guess we can all drop "possession of child pornography" off the list of things that will put you in handcuffs.

Ok, I'll bite.

Quote:

...a tumor of the pituitary gland, which prevented full sexual development. It was left untreated for so long it largely destroyed the organ before being removed. The list of Markley's eventual health problems was dazzling: severe migraines, chronic fatigue, and fibromyalgia. A meningioma required brain surgery in 2011. Severe back pain flared up. Neuropathy sent pain through Markley's face so sizzling that he eventually underwent a procedure in Detroit to install a motor cortex stimulator by "removing part of his skull, placing these leads with electrodes on the top lining of his brain, then bringing those leads back out through his skull and—through his skin, and they come out approximately behind his ear and go down." The results of all this suffering had been, his mother said, an anxiety disorder, panic attacks, and a daily need for painkillers like Oxycontin and Vicodin. Markley was also on disability at the time of the raid.

What part of the above did I fail to understand? Are you implying that if one can write a concise statement that somehow proves one's brain is firing on all cylinders? Really? You're professional diagonals on this guy's clear bill of mental health is predicated on something you read today in this article? Perhaps you should reread it again in it's entirety.

But the more I read on, the more I felt kinda sorry for the guy. His brain, this capacity rationalize and comprehend, is severely broken.

Bullsh**t. His email is clear, concise, and, frankly, better composed that most I receive in the course of a normal business day. He knows what he's doing, and he knows it is wrong.

The head-shaking part is that they didn't arrest him after the raid. I guess we can all drop "possession of child pornography" off the list of things that will put you in handcuffs.

Not being arrested and thrown into prison on the spot != not being tried and going to jail. It's quite normal to be left to your own devices in the early stages, because not showing up to court is, itself, a really big deal.

This is so sad though. Profound illness is such a common thread in these sorts of stories.

But the more I read on, the more I felt kinda sorry for the guy. His brain, this capacity rationalize and comprehend, is severely broken.

Bullsh**t. His email is clear, concise, and, frankly, better composed that most I receive in the course of a normal business day. He knows what he's doing, and he knows it is wrong.

The head-shaking part is that they didn't arrest him after the raid. I guess we can all drop "possession of child pornography" off the list of things that will put you in handcuffs.

Just because someone retains the ability to form lucid sentences does not mean that their brain cannot be severely damaged. Sociopaths and psychopaths can have high levels of intelligence, but their brains are lacking the ability to understand moral consequences or to have any form of relative understand of other human beings. Case in point, most sociopaths are CEOs of major corporations. These people are highly intelligent most often, and yet will often show a complete lack of understanding of a human being's worth, sufferings, and rights (the whole "it's just business" as they ax thousands of employees right before holidays or the like).

I'm sorry, but your post just shows a fantastic lack of scientific understanding, and quite frankly a sociopathic inability to relate to other human being states. I think Nate did an excellent job detailing just exactly how broken this guy's brain was. Just because he could still type well enough to put together a nightmarish threat email does not mean that he was fully aware of what his actions were setting into motion.

I agree that I hope this guy gets removed from the public and into a mental health institution to save his life as well as quite likely others. Prison would do nothing for him but get him killed or turn him into a killer.

Not directly related to the article, but I find it interesting that the tumor on his pituitary gland caused a stunting of his sexual development, which would go a long way to explaining his child porn interest. If he had the sexual development of, say, a 12-year-old boy, then it would make sense that he would look at children of that similar age range as sexual interests. I wonder if this is a potentially common cause of child pornography obsessions and if there is any way that people diagnosed with such afflictions might be able to be surveiled by authorities (with consent, preferably) in case such interests developed.

edit: baloroth beat me to much of it, and as always was more concise than I.

Meh. Why highlight this case, it just seems to be a bit pointless, with the barest of digital enforcement patina. Is there some angle here that I don't see that elevates this piece?

Thought it was interesting to see how a single e-mail can potentially get you in more trouble even than something like possessing child pornography, and how computers can make -both- things so accessible--just walk down the hall, don't even need a stamp. Your whole life can change now just without even forcing you to overcome roadblocks, such as going in search of illicit material, or digging up agent addresses and mailing letters, etc. This case is kind of a textbook example of just how easy it can be--and just how bad the results can get.

Although an extreme case, it's hardly surprising.

I've witnessed people spewing out electronic ad-hominems to those they are well acquainted with. Not being face-to-face with the recipient does have an effect--since many of these people could never muster the courage to say these things to the other person's face. I've seen first-hand of people losing jobs because of some inappropriate social media posts and/or e-mails.

You're absolutely correct about how easy it is to self-destruct. Hopefully more take it to heart.

All of those headlines are just as spellbinding; yes, they're also slightly less descriptive, but the point of the article is still made. In this situation, I'd rather a slightly less descriptive headline than disrupting the readability!

I've witnessed people spewing out electronic ad-hominems to those they are well acquainted with. Not being face-to-face with the recipient does have an effect--since many of these people could never muster the courage to say these things to the other person's face. I've seen first-hand of people losing jobs because of some inappropriate social media posts and/or e-mails.

You're absolutely correct about how easy it is to self-destruct. Hopefully more take it to heart.

Honestly, I think it's more the perfect storm of the guy's obvious mental deterioration coupled with the simplicity of electronic threat means. Yes, there are lots of "normal" people that type inexcusable attacks or slander against co-workers, family, or whomever when a fit of anger takes them; but these people are lashing out due to the anonymous nature of digital communications (see above poster) and are often just venting in a poorly-chosen medium.

This guy, I feel, was worth calling out because it was likely not just venting, due to the specifics of what he covered in the email threat. He also was not hiding behind the anonymity of digital communication, so it wasn't just another one of those "Anonymous trolls local Scientology Center" BS or whatnot. This was a frightening and fascinating case of how easily computers and digital connectivity can destroy a person's entire future if they are not possessing the mental capacities to monitor themselves or control their moral failings.

This is really sad. This guy was not given enough help or attention. Fixing medical symptoms without paying attention to the psychological ones is clearly dangerous, as this case shows. Especially when developmental parts of the brain are rendered ineffective, you are bound to produce a mind outside the standard distribution.

Don't you mean most CEOs of major corporations are sociopaths? I'm pretty sure there aren't enough corps to house all the sociopaths. Also, I think the study just said they had sociopathic tendencies, not that they were sociopaths.

Nitpicking posters aside, I have to wonder if there were symptoms people just missed or refused to see. Not saying there were, just curious. I kinda feel sorry for the guy; he should still be treated like he broke the law (because he did), but he also has major issues. Kinda fucked from the get-go.

Is NAMBLA a real thing? I'd only heard Jon Stewart mention it, and when I looked it up, I thought it was a troll site.

FFS...

I originally thought it was something that South Park came up with until I too discovered it was a real thing.

Also, to reinforce the point made by cherlindrea and baloroth, psychiatric patients can have their higher level cognition functions in perfect working order yet still have serious mental issues. Just because they can write lucidly or hold a seemingly normal conversation does not mean a specific condition does not exist. This is the reason why lay people have such difficulty recognising what a mental illness actually is like.

Why? This type of person self-selects for positions that bring them in contact with children. Youth-worker, councilor, teacher, etc... Apologies if I am making unfounded assumptions about the meaning of your post, but trying to make some sort of association between the fact he was a church-goer and his... illness... is dumb.

He wasn't just a 'church-goer'; he was in a position of authority. And it is an authority that bases its power on a perceived moral righteousness that usually asserts itself on others. So we have hypocrisy (which can apply to anyone) coupled with sanctimony and talk like this:

"And until you're dead I will petition God daily to send you to the deepest, damnedest depths of hell, where you will burn with the rest of the damned for eternity."

This is hardly an isolated event - every month the FFRF fills two tabloid-sized pages of its publication with small-print summaries of religious authorities arrested or sentenced for child molestation and abuse (and it's not just the Catholic church). We see government officials and corporate executives regularly chastised on front pages for lesser transgressions with loud howls of accountability, yet churches are held to no such standard. (Indeed, the Vatican has only recently been charged legally with their massive child-abuse cover-ups.)

This guy will undoubtedly summon some form of piety in his excuse and request for leniency, and some people will probably fall for it (He talked about those parents who told him that he was "the best Youth Ministry Director our church has ever had".) I don't deny that he is a sick individual (more than just in terms of sexual interests), but he brought religion into his threats. People have to determine for themselves just who else is 'ill' versus 'legitimate' when they talk to us about sin and eternal damnation.

Really sad case. Though an interesting article. The guy's mental problems are probably why he was left on his own after the agents went through his stuff and seized the CP.

Agree with Nate though - it's amazing how one (tremendously) bad email can land one in hot boiling water. But note this guy fully intended to die after sending that message, so he wasn't thinking about the consequences.

I think NAMBLA is about as real as the Flat Earth Society. There are probably a small handful of people in the country who would be called "true believers", but for the most part the organizations are still around mostly to be the butt of jokes. I would guess that if they somehow organized a meeting in a major city the attendance would be in the single digits or maybe low double digits.

Sad case. The defendant is "more to be pitied than scorned." I hope there is a mental health court or something of that sort to deal with him. It would be awesome if the prosecutors would take a step back for a moment and realize that. Unfortunately, it is more likely that they will zealously fight for the most draconian punishment or pressure the waif into accepting a terrible plea agreement.